'JESUS' STRUCK BY ROMAN LIGHTNING
and Mel speaks in tongues.
ROME: 24th October -- "I'm about a hundred feet away from them when I glance over and see smoke coming out of Caviezel's ears." The Passion of Christ, Australian actor Mel Gibson's new and original venture into film direction, took an unexpected turn this week in a remote location some hours away from Rome. Jim Caviezel, playing Christ, was not badly hurt, nor was the film's producer Steve McEveety who was struck for the second time during filming.
The Passion of Christ is a significant and controversial film directed and co-written by Gibson. It is quite a different direction, it would seem, for the man who starred in Lethal Weapon and Braveheart, quite apart from the fact that it is filmed in Aramiac and Latin. "No-one wants to touch something in two dead languages. They think I'm insane - maybe I am" says Gibson in a recent interview recorded on the ABC website, "but it's very visual and it's about something that has affected civilisation in every way possible you can imagine." For Mel Gibson, a fervent Catholic who wants to allow his faith expression through his art, the film's message "will transcend language barriers through filmic storytelling". Gibson's full name, Mel Columcille Gibson gives away his Catholic origins; and wherever Mel Gibson goes, in his film work, he brings his wife and six children with him.
Assuming no further dramatic developments in Rome's fickle 'ottobrate' weather, The Pasion of Christ is slated for release early in 2004.
